Floor Updates

The NDAA (H.R. 5515)

Jun13201803:55PM

"So if you were just passing along the costs to your consumers, the rate should be somewhere in the neighborhood of 5%, 6%, or 7%. Instead, in Virginia, it's 64%. Senator Merkley is going to speak about Oregon. But premiums in or going up by double digits, 14%. Washington State is looking at a premium increase of 30%. The Kaiser plan in Washington is asking for a 30% increase. The statewide average is right around 20%. Kaiser in Washington says the rate changes in our plan are primarily driven by claims experienced in the single risk pool, medical inflation and project the risks in the risk profile in membership due to the elimination of the individual mandate."

Senator Merkley: (3:41 p.m.)

Spoke on healthcare reform.

"The health care bill of rights that said that preventive testing is free because an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. What did the team trump do? Well, they cut the enrollment period in half. They cut funding for outreach by up to 92%. They slashed the budget for tieing so that people would know that there was an open period and the opportunity to get the health care plan by 90%. Nine out of $10. They put up anti-marketplace propaganda. They periodically proceeded to shut down the website so that people would get frustrated trying to sign up for insurance. Well, that's a real winner. Make it hard for people to sign up for health care."

Senator Wyden: (3:47 p.m.)

Spoke on healthcare reform.

"And now Senator Murphy, Senator Kaine, and my colleagues are here on the floor to talk about the Trump administration's effort to unravel the law, the current law that bars insurance companies from beating the stuffing out of people with preexisting conditions. That's the way it used to be, folks. If you had a preexisting, you know, condition and you weren't healthy or wealthy - and that's what you face if you have a preexisting condition - you were just really in bad shape. If you're healthy, you pay your bills. If you're wealthy, you pay the bills."